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A Novel with a Little ID

Having trouble talking about ID with your wife or girlfriend? Well, here is a perfect way to start them off. This story about love, betrayal, and death will surely get them interested. Here is an excerpt:

“Well,” began David, “I’ve been doing a lot of reading on intelligent design theory. Have you heard or read about this theory?”

“I can’t say I have,” replied Tommy. He picked up the pitcher and poured himself some pomegranate juice with sparkling water mix; he had a feeling his throat was going to need plenty of hydration. “Fill me in,” he said, making a legitimate effort at open-mindedness and attentiveness.

David cleared his throat in order not to sound too eager. “Let’s see,” he began, “the chief theoretician, Dr. Dembski, uses SETI –Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence– as an example of how one goes about distinguishing patterns that are clearly the result of intelligence versus those that are the result of an unguided natural process. In other words, his work attempts to study the effects that intelligent agents leave behind.”

Tommy interrupted, “Sounds like a semantic sleight-of-hand.” These last words caught the attention of both Hannah and Debby. Their attention was now gripped by the meaningfulness of this benign controversy.

16 Responses to A Novel with a Little ID

Just curious. This phrase comes across as a little patronising to women.I have picked up a feeling that some consider ID supporters somewhat misogynistic, so I am curious how many posters here, who support ID as a scientific pursuit, are female? Of course there’s Ms O’Leary. but after that?

I currently have an ongoing email conversation regarding ID and other issues with a woman in Colorado. I met her several years ago, and I have to say that her understanding is far greater than mine. So maybe it’s the wife or girlfriend who have the head knowledge here.

I really can’t address the question of who among women support ID, because I simply don’t know.

I know there’s Anika Smith over at DI and of course Dr. Carolyn Crocker, but there are probably many more. You should look at the |Descent from Darwinism list over at DI. I know there are several women scientists who have signed it.

Joy Busey no longer posts at TT, Joe, I think due to political differences with other members. She never struck me as particularly interested in biological ID, but often claimed there is a conspiracy to suppress the supernatural from scientific study. I used to quite like her folksy eclecticism and often agreed with her on points other than the relevance of the supernatural to science.

@ Cannuckian Yankee.

I was curious as to how many women there are among the ID supporters who post here.

I apologize if the post sounds patronizing, that was not my objective. I don’t think that you have to be intelligent to discuss ID, but you probably have to be interested in the subject. I know of very few ID books (old and new) that were written by women or whose intended readers are women. That’s all I meant.

I’ll admit, statistically speaking women do generally have different interests than men by quite a margin in some cases. I’m currently going to school for a degree in electrical engineering, and I know 2 people who have already graduated and observed that there were absolutely no women in their major classes (integrated circuits, electro-magnetics etc…). Please don’t mistake these observations for misogyny however. Essentially I see the lack of female interest in engineering majors relevant to how many female ID followers you’d find at a technical level, seeing as ID is engineer-centric. That’s not to say that they aren’t capable by any means, but it just simply shows a seeming lack of interest. I actually have an aunt who is an electrical engineer for the power grids in California, and she could even testify to the lack of females in her field.

Then again, maybe there’s just not enough public exposure for many people outside of specific circles of interest to really bite into the readily available documents and resources for ID yet, and of course this would consequently effect how much public awareness there is in general. In my current age group it’s actually pretty disappointing to see the ratio of intellectuals who are for ID vs. those for Darwin vs. those who are oblivious/don’t care. I say this because the latter two are exceedingly dominant nowadays, particularly in this age group however. Of course this is just a sample of a demographic within southeast America, but with the current school structure and idealogical curriculum I don’t see this letting up any time soon unless the Texas Board of Education can really pull through for the rest of us in the south.

I’m not sure whether she is an IDer per say, but Dr. Georgia Purdom is certainly a major player in the larger evolution debate. She has a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline (molecular genetics) from a mainstream university and being relatively young (maybe 30ish?) she’s going to be around for a long time.

You’re pronouncing it right, but spelling it wrong. It should be written: “per se” (two words, with a macron over the e in “se”). It’s Latin, so the long e in “se” is pronounced like the English “long a”.

It’s doubtful whether you need the phrase, anyway, as your sentence made perfect sense without it.